A Chance Lost
by Stewthewriter1
Summary: An alternate look at the events of District 9, what if only a handful of non-humans survived the arrival of the ship?


A Chance Lost

A.D 1982

Captain Dieter Kolbe could not believe his eyes; for the best part of six hours he and his men had slogged through the sweltering conditions inside the strange vessel, looking for signs of life.

They had waded ankle deep in piles of alien gunk, hoping and praying that they had not wasted their time. Surely this thing hadn't gotten here all by itself, his men asked between bouts of sweeping the shadows with torchlight and machine guns.

But no at this moment in time it seemed to the thirty five year old South African that this ship _was _in fact some kind of latter day Marie Celeste.

So where was the crew?

Dieter cast his mind back to that fateful day five months ago when he had been lying in a sun washed bed, in the arms of his beloved wife Agatha, and his bedside phone had rung.

'Look outside' came the curt voice of his friend Christian Biller.

No greeting, no how are you just LOOK OUTSIDE.

'Why man, I am with Agatha and...'

'For fucks sake just get on with it'

The unusually agitated tone of his friend disturbed Dieter somewhat.

'Jesus what's happened the end of the world or something?'

Very nearly, thought Dieter as in seemingly slow motion his gaze rounded the curtains leading to his balcony and there IT was, big, round and shiny: a saucer object.

'Is that a fucking space ship man, what the fuck?' Dieter had shouted into the phone.

'Looks like it right, unless the air force has got something to hide'

'What the fuck...man I can't...'

'I know Dieter, I know. I was the same'

'When did it get here?'

Christian paused for a moment, as if afraid of the answer.

'Nobody knows but we woke up this morning and it sort of just appeared on the horizon, drifting towards the city'

'And something that big had slipped past air defence radars?'

'There were apparently offline for maintenance over night'

By this time Agatha had crawled out of bed and now also stared out of the window, hand over mouth in shock. She was never a religious person before, but she now started praying.

'There has been no contact from the ship Dieter. The government is in a blind panic however and has ordered all military personnel to full alert'

'Great that means I have to come down to Carlton Barracks on my day off?'

'Afraid so, see you soon buddy'

The phone clicked off and Dieter turned to his wife.

'This is...not real' she said.

'It is my love, I am afraid it is. Listen I have to go down to base and report for duty'

'No, does that mean that thing is going to attack?'

'Not if the South African Defence Forces have anything to do with it!'

The drive down to Carlton Barracks was surreal; Dieter couldn't take his eyes of the ship and nearly crashed twice as a result. Lots of people milled in the streets, taking photos and videos. Rather than a sense of panic, it seemed a carnival like atmosphere had descended on Johannesburg. If that vessel was hostile, wasn't it usual that they started blasting the planet apart by now thought Dieter, like in the movies?

But the vessel had shown no signs of movements, ray guns, tripods...or any life at all.

Dieter checked his watch, it wasn't April the 1st today but something about all this made it feel like a big prank.

Carlton Barracks was bustling when he pulled his car into the parking lot, more so than usual. It was as if war had been declared somewhere.

Dieter didn't think so, oddly, as if that ship might only be visiting for a short while, perhaps refuelling in the Earth's atmosphere...or perhaps FROM the atmosphere.

Whatever, he had a job to do.

'Hey Dieter good to see you'

Christian came and greeted him straight away.

'Hi Chris, tell me this is a bad dream'

'Ha ha, afraid not buddy. It is all too real'

Even though it was only six hours in real time, Dieter felt he had spent months on the ship and all for nothing. They had made their way in a circular fashion through the corridors once they had breached the outer hull. That alone had taken hours.

'Team one report in' Dieter said brusquely over the radio.

'Nothing so far sir, just more of this fucking residue stuff'

'Team two report in'

'Just the same sir and it's bloody hot too!'

Dieter turned to Chris, who stood at his shoulder.

'It's like a steam bath in here, maybe all the occupants fried?'

Even though he knew Chris was only half-joking, he did think about that prospect: like they just evaporated.

'No we will search this thing from top to bottom until we find something...or nothing'

'You got it' Chris replied.

'Good morning gents, I trust you are all well'

Brigadier Matthias Nelson was something of a veteran in all things military but this latest event had thrown even him off.

'As you are aware a significant event for all of mankind has occurred in the last twenty four hours, namely the arrival of what looks like an extraterrestrial vessel over our city. This is unprecedented and has potentially massive consequences for our society'

'Jesus since when has he been a psychologist' Chris muttered under his breath.

Dieter laughed, even in these strange times humour always had a place in his work.

'Our government, fearful of the significance of this event, has placed the military on its highest alert in case of any anomalies'

'It's a little bit more than an anomaly up here, don't you think?' said Dieter, scooping up and handing what looked like a gun of some kind to Chris.

'Yup indeed, seems they have left their technology behind for us to play with'

Suddenly an excitable yell cut across the radio.

'Fucking hell I found one, is he alive Ralph? Um Captain Kolbe we got a life form here, in what looks like the main hold. Come quickly'

'You heard the man: all teams proceed to the main hold, on the double!'

The one surviving being had died shortly after they all arrived. It had breathed out its last surrounded by legions of dead aliens in varying degrees of decay.

'My God it's a fucking charnel house here!' exclaimed Dieter.

'Looks like a virus or something might have got them' replied Chris, ever the doctor.

'Or maybe poison gas' another trooper offered.

'Whatever it is killed them all, I mean look'

None of their torch beams could penetrate the suffocating gloom but it was clear there were thousands of bodies piled up in the immediate space.

'It's curious but there is no smell of decay here, what do you think Chris?'

'True but could they be in hibernation...'

Dieter yelled into the darkness, more at himself than his troops.

'No we are too fucking late, which means we have missed a golden opportunity to make contact with extraterrestrial life forms!'

'Now what do we do?' asked Chris on behalf of all humanity.

Just as the teams were finishing up their final sweep of the vessel, one trooper noticed a small white door towards the centre of the ship marked with:

ENTRYPOINT1

'What the fuck does that mean?' said Chris.

'Damned if I know, it's the first bit of clear scripture I have seen' Dieter answered, examining the markings.

'But I say we take a look anyway'

What looked like a biometric scanner next to the door could have been an entry device. Dieter waved his hand across the 'eye' of the gadget. With a hiss of something or other, the door receded inwards and led them into a smaller chamber.

'Now that is a bit unexpected' one of the troops said.

'Okay make sure you are locked and loaded with safeties off understood?'

They had to descend a tiny staircase but immediately to their right they noticed smaller craft located entirely inside the mother vessel.

'That could be a control pod' Dieter noted.

'Yeah very likely and look, there is an open side door'

'Watch out for any traps'

The interior of the small craft was a deep blue and it looked to be lit up by a number of holographic displays. Cautiously a group of men stepped inside the vessel and swept their weapons to and fro.

There, near the front of the vessel: four figures clustered around the cockpit. Three were strapped into seats attached to the walls and one seemed to be flying the craft.

'Ok...um freeze put your hands up' was all Dieter could think to say.

The beings obeyed immediately, throwing their claw-like hands up and vigorously shaking their heads in protest.

'Move away from those controls, do it now'

That was Chris now.

'Right we aren't here to hurt you we just want to know what the hell is going on' Dieter offered.

The 'pilot' seemed to be gesturing to the flickering control interface and making some weird clicking noises. The others responded enthusiastically in the same way.

'Look we don't speak fucking alien so just wait a minute' another trooper whined.

Then their world fell away from them as a set of doors opened in the mother vessel and the smaller craft dropped out into space.

'SHIIIETT FIND A FUCKING GRAAPLE POOOOIIIINTTT' Dieter yelled as his stomach went into his throat.

The craft fell for a long time like a fairground ride before entering into controlled flight. Dieter and his team managed to strap into the awkwardly shaped seats as the craft levelled off.

'Man that was close' Chris commented.

'Just don't do anything stupid eh'

The small ship wound its way to the ground in ever decreasing spirals, applying reverse thrusters and coming to rest on an open area of land not far from the ship.

By the time the pilot shut down the engines and moved down the vessel, armed soldiers had surrounded it with weapons drawn.

But Dieter was fascinated by the being, looking like a giant grass hopper on two legs and with wavy spaghetti for a mouth.

'So this is where they have settled?' Dieter asked, mopping sweat from his brow from the millionth time. He was in the middle of the Kruger National Park, miles from civilisation.

His guide, a government scientist replied in the affirmative.

'The original family of four plus one offspring and a clutch of eggs'

'Have there been any problems with this group?'

'No as they appear to be self sufficient, we drop them monthly food parcels but they seem able to live adequately off the land. Raw cattle meat seems to be a favoured delicacy. Now we have a basic communication in place as well and are more able to understand each other. These are supremely intelligent beings Dieter'

'That's a relief then! They have been here six months now, any clue as to what happens next?'

'They have indicated their intention to fix the problems with their mother ship and return home, but have also not ruled out staying here permanently if things don't work out'

Dieter smiled.

'That would be a very interesting prospect indeed'

THE END


End file.
